A recent update makes The Weather Channel a strong player among weather apps for Android.

When I first reviewed The Weather Channel's app, I bemoaned its outdated design and truly maddening monetization scheme. It was among my least favorite Android weather apps. Thankfully, the Weather Channel has brought a refreshed design to Android, and the difference is dramatic. Existing users should see the update arrive on their phones soon, but everyone else should take heart, because the storm has passed and the sun is shining.

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If you don't see the new update, don't fret. The Weather Channel tells me that the new app is rolling out slowly to get feedback from users. The good news is that the developers have already found and fixed some critical issues. The bad news is that most users won't see the new app for weeks.

Going Vertical The Weather Channel has clearly taken a page from the beautifully stylish Yahoo Weather app, using a lengthy vertical scrolling layout with stunning photos in a location-aware backdrop. The top of the app's page features the current conditions and temperature, along with the high and low temperatures for the day.

Unfortunately, the Weather Channel opted not to let users move these things around. Both Yahoo Weather and Weather Underground let you rearrange panels to your heart's content. The Weather Channel also includes a lot of banner ads, which seem to slow it down. These ads are annoying, but they're light years less irritating than the truly excruciating mPoints monetization system found in the old app. If you're a masochist, you can opt into this otherwise retired service from the Settings, but I'm staying far, far away.

Taking a cue from Editors' Choice Weather Underground, The Weather Channel has also added a social weather reporting feature. From the main page, you can see what people around you are reporting and even add your own observations by tapping one of five weather conditions icons. I really like this feature, but, as I write this, very few people are reporting the weather, even in densely populated lower Manhattan. Perhaps there will be more activity once the update has a chance to reach more users.

Also, I'd like to see every weather company that gathers crowdsourced data offer alerts based off that information. Imagine knowing it was raining before the National Weather Service does. But I digress.

The Weather Channel's more technical weather information is on the Right Now panel, which shows the "feels like" temperature, sunrise and sunset times, humidity, dew point, visibility (in miles, though you can change all the units in the app), barometric pressure, and UV index, as well as wind speed and direction. Below this is the Hourly page, which breaks down the conditions and chance of precipitation, along with high and low temperature by the hour. I'm disappointed that the chance of precipitation is so far down in The Weather Channel's inflexible layout, as it seems pretty important for planning your day.

The app includes panels for crowdsourced weather reports, which seems a bit redundant; pollen levels for trees, grass, and weeds; and airport conditions. This last panel estimates the delays for both arriving and departing flights, and it automatically detects nearby airports. I'd like to see a little more customization in the last panel, and it seems so useful that, again, I'm disappointed it's buried so deep. Of course, if you don't fly often, it's not a big deal. And that is exactly why a customizable layout would help.

In between all this weather information are panels for Videos and Weather News, the latter of which are just The Weather Channel's news stories. Readers familiar with The Weather Channel's unique mix of pithy, breathless journalism will not be surprised that most of the video content has nothing to do with weather. For instance, during my testing, I watched a 30-second feature about a toddler who was born without a nose.

I don't find these video segments or news articles particularly compelling. They mostly serve to remind me that I wish I could hide the panels, or at least move them out of sight.

Radar Map Though the Weather Channel app looks dramatically different, its radar map appears nearly identical to that of the previous version. There are overlays for storm alerts, the paths of hurricanes and tropical storms, and other meteorological data. You can also animate your view. It's a solid offering, but it is confusing and needs a tutorial.

Sorely missing is the old Travel Weather feature. This let you view a Google Maps-generated route and see the weather you might encounter while driving. It was an imprecise tool at best, but I'd rather see The Weather Channel improve it than remove it entirely. That said, you can view traffic data on radar maps, which is helpful.

A quick note about location: during my testing, the app persistently reported my location as Long Island City, which is nowhere near PCMag, which is where I was testing. It's not even on the same island. Weirdly, the radar feature did correctly geolocate my position. Perhaps The Weather Channel has some peculiar views on New York geography. The developers tell me this issue will soon be addressed.

Weather Widget WarThe war of Android weather supremacy will be fought with widgets, as most users probably prefer to get their weather information at a glance. The Weather Channel has spruced up all its widgets and now offers four size options. The smallest takes up a one-by-one slot on your home screen, and it shows the current conditions and temperature. The largest of the widgets uses a four-by-two slot and includes the current time, date, temperature, and conditions.

All The Weather Channel's widgets are thoughtfully minimalist, which I appreciate. That said, I wish there were at least one that provided actual forecast data, like Weather Underground has.

Sun is Shining The Weather Channel Android app has improved by leaps and bounds since my last review. Gone are all the most irritating features, and the new design is clean, modern, and genuinely useful. It's an incredible update. That said, I do find the sheer number of ads in to be annoying and the inability to move panels disappointing. The Weather Channel has taken a great leap forward, but not far enough to surpass PCMag's Editors' Choice for Android weather apps, Weather Underground.

About the Author

Max Eddy is a Software Analyst, taking a critical eye to the Android OS and security services. He's also PCMag's foremost authority on weather stations and digital scrapbooking software. He spends much of his time polishing his tinfoil hat and plumbing the depths of the Dark Web.
Prior to PCMag, Max wrote for the International Digital Times, The... See Full Bio

The Weather Channel (for Androi...

The Weather Channel (for Android)

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